John Frankenheimer

Having emerged from the era of 1950s live television, director John Frankenheimer quickly became a Hollywood wunderkind after directing several highly-regarded films before suffering a series of setba...
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On this week’s Naughty or Nice, we’re taking a more aggressive approach to the holidays. While the majority of Christmas movies tend to be comedies or dramas (or dramedies), one of the more delightful deviations is the Christmas action film. If there is anything we want our true loves to bring us more than turtledoves and French hens, it’s bullets a-spraying and golden ringing in our ears after a massive explosion. Even within this substantially precise sub-genre, there are still more than enough entries to delineate between those that are dynamite and those that woefully miss their targets.
Nice: Die Hard
Dir: John McTiernan
Cast: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Reginald VelJohnson
Plot: New York police officer John McClane comes out to L.A. to visit his estranged wife Holly during her company’s Christmas party. Unfortunately, an international gang of armed thieves has also decided to attend. Now, isolated in a skyscraper, McClane must not only singlehandedly take on the villains, but also literally walk across broken glass to save his marriage.
Die Hard is not just the standard for Christmas actioners, it would serve as the archetype for many action films that followed. The claustrophobic, violent adventure story with a lone, put-upon protagonist presented an interesting, self-contained approach to mayhem that redefined both the genre hero and action set piece conceptualization. We may quote it nonstop and cheer at the baser thrills (seeing the body hit the cop car, Willis’ goading cowboy signoff, etc), but Die Hard is far more vital to the climate of cinema than most give it credit for.
What’s great about Die Hard is the specific means by which it utilizes Christmas as an ironic accent to the murder and destruction. While it’s no secret that the movie takes place during the holiday season, it doesn’t overwhelm the film’s narrative. Change the reason for the Nakatomi party that coincides with McClane’s visit, and the movie could pretty much take place at any point during the year. However, Michael Kamen’s ever-present score, laden with festive jingle bells, juxtapose the brutal, nightmarish content of the movie with the joy of the holiday; excerpts of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” throughout furthers this juxtaposition.
Without a doubt, Die Hard is what made Bruce Willis a movie star. It wasn’t his first film, and in fact he was already a popular TV personality thanks to Moonlighting, but Die Hard as much changed the public perception of Willis as it did redefine the blockbuster action movie. Merely by stepping out of his comfort zone, Willis stumbled upon the mode that would characterize his career from that point forward.
Naughty: Reindeer Games
Dir: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Ben Affleck, Charlize Theron, Gary Sinise
Plot: A paroled thief makes the mistake of getting involved with a woman with whom his recently murdered cellmate was corresponding. This encounter quickly finds him entangled with a group of criminals intent on robbing a casino. He is forced to take part to save his own skin.
So right off the bat, we have several fundamental similarities that make a compelling case for Reindeer Games’ classification as a Die Hard rip-off. It is a Christmas action film that centers on a robbery, features a put-upon hero, and ends with a pile of dead crooks. From there, the differences are so stark as to choke out any favorable comparisons. Indeed, their few visible shared traits only serve to shine harsher light upon Reindeer Games’ innumerable shortcomings. In many ways, we can think of Reindeer Games as the lesser sibling of Die Hard
For example, let us take a look at the films’ respective protagonists. Yes, both are in the wrong place at the wrong time, but the events that land them at that wrong place express the divergent endearing qualities of those heroes. Where one is a guy just trying to rekindle his relationship with his wife, the other is a two-bit crook who pretends to be someone else in order to bed a beautiful woman. McClane is a cop whose natural inclination is toward saving the day; Affleck’s character is vile and dishonest at his core. Also, if you thought the plot of Die Hard relied a bit heavily on convenient circumstance, the plot of Reindeer Games is so dependent upon the occurring of an exact series of variables as to be something more akin to deus ex schlockina.
Oddly, there is something fascinating about examining the directors and actors involved in these two films; they actually somewhat align when shifted across the timelines of their catalogs. Bruce Willis was altering his paradigm by moving into action films early, and currently Ben Affleck has been charting his own major shift. With directorial efforts Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and now Argo, Affleck has firmly established himself behind the camera.
And then we have John McTiernan and John Frankenheimer in the respective director’s chairs here. Both of these filmmakers’ names carry a great deal of weight, and these two films represent benchmarks at opposing ends of two formidable careers. Die Hard was McTiernan’s third film, and released just a year after Predator. It was clear he was coming into his own in a big way. Meanwhile, Frankenheimer was nearing the end of his career, and sadly his life, when he made Reindeer Games. It’s one of those unfortunate examples of a great filmmaker losing his touch, while simultaneously featuring an actor who in constant struggle to be respected as a leading man. And yet now, Affleck is a talented director, Willis is about to star in the fifth Die Hard film, and legal troubles have prevented McTiernan from making a movie since 2003. The pendulum continues to swing.
[Photo Credit: Dimension Films; 20th Century Fox]
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Weird Science: Cinema's Five Worst Experiments
Science fiction films, much more so than books, have always used audience’s fear of the unknown in order to sell tickets. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, in some exaggerated Hollywood context, especially when dealing with near-future technology. The film Splice is one of the latest of the techno-fear movies, playing on the long-time and still all-too-current phobia we seem to have of scientists who mess around in what some consider to be only God’s sandbox: genetics. The film tells the story of two lab rats (Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley) who secretly splice together a mish-mash of animal genes with human DNA and end up with a new creature they name “Dren”. As you might imagine, things don’t exactly end up sunshine and rainbows. But it’s hardly the first film to express society’s fears of the worst that could happen...
The Island of Doctor Moreau
H.G. Wells original novel in 1896 was written as a reaction to public fears on animal vivisection and of degeneration, conjecture on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution that humans might not always be the dominant adapted species. It wasn’t until the third adaptation of the story into a film that the story’s root techno-fear became genetic tampering. John Frankenheimer helmed this version in 1996 starring Marlon Brando as the crazed doctor and Val Kilmer as the survivor of a plane crash who bears witness’s to the island’s mixture’s of human and animal DNA (including the perhaps uncomfortably sexy Fairuza Balk as a half-cat lady). The film was a gigantic mess and a failure both financially and critically, one which has been chalked up to a number of factors, but most notably, Frankenheimer directly attacking Kilmer and Brando as being totally impossible to work with. There’s an appeal though, so long after the fact the mess seems like more of a fascinating one.
The Boys From Brazil
When someone brought up cloning as a concept to the seventies, the decade lost it’s damn mind, no more memorably so than in the ’78 British/American co-production of Ira Levin’s novel of the worst possible post WWII nightmare. Some folks, even today, claim this actually happened (crazy people, mind you). I’m of course talking about, Hitler clones. Laurence Olivier hunts down Gregory Peck as Josepf Mengele who is trying to perform the heinous genetic recreation. Or has already....many times. Believe it or not, this fun but silly sci-fi film scored three Oscar nominations. And it’s even got a young Steve Guttenberg in it! Of course, in retrospect, many believe Guttenberg’s career itself to have been a third reich plot to instill mediocrity into the western world.
The Fly
If you’ve seen David Cronenberg’s masterful 1986 remake of the 1958 film, then you’re going to be smacked in the face with thematic similarities when you watch Splice. There’s no getting past it: more than just a little influence came from this Jeff Goldblum starring horror film. He plays a scientist who has come up with an almost-functional teleportation chamber. When his new girlfriend (Geena Davis) gives him the idea of how to make it be able to transport things of the fleshy variety, he tries it out on himself, only to regret not having built in a more no-nonsense safety buffer. His DNA becomes fused with an errant fly who was in the machine with him, which at first seems great, as he is gifted with added strength and dexterity; if Stan Lee had come up with the idea first, it would be a superhero origin film. But it’s a Cronenberg film, which means horrible HORRIBLE mutations start happening and the worst/best (depending on your viewpoint) kind of get-under-your-skin body horror proceeds to turn things rather gooey.
Jurassic Park
Isn’t science wonderful? Why, old man John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) is a modern day Walt Disney, taking the forefront of science and genetic engineering to do the most wonderful thing imaginable: bringing back to life the dinosaurs! At least on paper perhaps it sounded great, but as Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and others discover, not so much in practice. “Nature always finds a way”, Goldblum’s chaos theory scientist opines, and of course, he nails it on the head as the genetic solution Hammond’s scientists came up with to fill in sequence gaps, leads to the uncontrolled breeding that is the worst case scenario for the island. Audiences and critics largely embraced the film, many reacting with the same sort of sense of wonder the characters in it expressed (at first) at the dinosaurs in it, the effects being game-changing at the time. It was popular enough for it to garner two not-as-successful sequels and I think everyone fully expects the long-planned fourth movie to eventually rear it’s potentially ugly head.
Gattaca
As obvious a good thing as it would seem to many, the idea of using genetic technology to protect the human genome from abnormalities, there certainly would be a possible dark side to it, one which this 1997 sci-fi film explores. Ethan Hawke plays a man born without the use of this tech and finds himself in a society that, regardless of genetic discrimination laws, doesn’t allow “In-Valid”s such as himself to do much. When he meets Jude Law, a former athlete who was paralyzed in a suicide attempt, he buys his DNA identity in order to pursue his own dream of becoming an astronaut. Of course, there’s no problem with that genetic resume to get the job, but shortly before launch, a man is murdered and some of that borrowed DNA is found on the crime scene. Hawke has to dodge the detective (Alan Arkin) and hope that not only he is cleared of the crime, but that no one discovers his deception and that his new girlfriend (Uma Thurman) doesn’t react as most women have since the beginning of time to the genetically insufficient. Of all the films about such things, Gattaca has the greatest feel of ‘it could happen’ and it has garnered a respectable cult following since it’s release. Even though it wasn’t a smash theatrically, over ten years later there’s now a television show adaptation in the works. Some sci-fi seems more prescient than most; all we can do is hope that Gattaca isn’t one of them.

Hollywood star Charlize Theron has been named the Sexiest Woman Alive by a new poll.
The 32-year-old South African beat off hot competition from fellow screen beauties Jessica Biel, Scarlett Johansson and Angelina Jolie to top the list in Esquire magazine.
During an interview in the November issue of Esquire, Theron reveals her glittering career--highlighted by her Oscar win for Monster--is far from flawless.
She says, "Reindeer Games. That was a bad, bad, bad movie.
"But even though the movie might suck, I got to work with John Frankenheimer. I wasn't lying to myself--that's why I did it. I mean, he directed The Manchurian Candidate, which is like the movie of all movies."
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In the tradition of Batman Begins and Casino Royale the clock is rolled back on the legendary icons the D—the self-proclaimed greatest band in the world—as the curtain is pulled back on their secret origins and the demons that drive them are unveiled… OK so it’s not really that deep. Though the heavy metal/comedy combo of Jack/JB/”Jabeles” (Jack Black) and Kyle/KB/”Kage” (Kyle Gass) have long played hip clubs cut an album starred in their own short-lived HBO series and amassed a devoted cult of fans their first feature film reveals how the pudgy duo first meet form the band meet their first fan (Jason Reed as TV holdover Lee) go questing the fabled Pick of Destiny—a shard of Satan’s tooth turned into a guitar pick passed among rock’s most accomplished shredders—and ultimately smack down with the devil himself. Believe it or not it’s a love story. Thanks to their long professional partnership Black and Gass comprise two perfectly crafted sides of a very polished comedy coin: Black is the wild-eyed uncontrolled id Gass is the low-energy manipulative slacker and they meet in the middle with an equal amount of unchecked delusion about their musical ability and potential. They both deftly pull off the trickiest types of comedy: smart jokes in the guise of dumb characters and it’s nice to see Black—obviously the bigger film star of the two—share the funniest bits equally with Gass. Of course all of this hinges on the audience’s tolerance for the ambitiously clueless ego-cases (and moviegoers who only love Black for his tamer version of the same persona in School of Rock should be warned—this is the cruder ruder and more profane incarnation) but we admit we’ve long had a taste for the D. They boys carry they movie squarely on their shoulders though longtime D supporters Tim Robbins and Ben Stiller stand out in cameos—the first Stiller cameo in ages that’s both amusing and non-gratuitous! Also appearing in small bits: SNL’s Fred Armisen and Amy Poehler Oscar-nominee Amy Adams Colin Hanks hard rock hero Ronnie James Dio Foo Fighter Dave Grohl as Satan and an uncredited John C. Reilly though you’ll never ever recognize him when he’s onscreen. And kudos to whoever had the inspired notion to cast Meat Loaf as JB’s pious father and Troy Gentile as the young rockin’ JB (Gentile also played a junior version of Black in Nacho Libre). Helmer Liam Lynch who also collaborated on the screenplay with Black and Gass and directed their music video “Tribute ” understands the absurd world of the D completely and demonstrates a clever assured sense of straight-faced silliness. Indeed the first ten minutes of the film alone—a mini-rock opera in itself—announce him as a comedy director to watch. Although we’re sure the bandmates themselves would take full credit for the film’s success. After all they may not have made the greatest movie in the world but in D-speak they came up with a pretty rockin’ tribute version.

While passing through Cairo during a sabbatical from the priesthood following World War II Father Lankester Merrin (Stellan Skarsgard) receives an offer from Semelier Ben Cross) a collector of rare antiquities to join a British archeological excavation in the remote Turkana region of Kenya where a Christian Byzantine church has been unearthed. Although Merrin has lost his religion (he left the church after being forced by the Nazis to commit atrocities against people of his parish) the skilled archeologist accepts the mission out of curiosity: The pristinely preserved church dates back more than 1 000 years before Christianity even reached the East African plain. Once there Merrin anxiously heads to the excavation sight and enters the partially buried church to discover it has been vandalized--or so he thinks; a large wooden cross has been broken and hung upside down. He also encounters Dr. Sarah Novack (Izabella Scorupco) who runs a local hospital and informs the men that the last man in charge of the excavation had gone mad and was now in a sanitarium in Nairobi. The mystery thickens when a local boy Joseph (Remy Sweeney) shows signs of satanic possession. The Turkana blame the mysterious church for the unexplained supernatural activity including a woman's delivery of a Satan-like maggot-covered still born infant. Soon tension mounts between the Turkana and the British troops stationed there.
Poor Skarsgard. To his credit the veteran actor tries his best to add a dash of distinctiveness to his underdeveloped character Father Merrin. Skarsgard (King Arthur) supplies Merrin with an air of attitude a sort of aloofness that screams I don't owe anyone anything. Armed with brute strength and fearlessness (he moves a large concrete slab without breaking a sweat and crawls through unlit basements without ever flinching) Merrin is practically transformed into sexy religious superhero. But Skarsgard even can't escape the silly dialogue that explains what is self-explanatory. "If everyone died who buried them?" Merrin asks aloud outside a cemetery where a plague supposedly whiped out the village's population. Scorupco (Reign of Fire) meanwhile doesn't inject anything extra into her rather forgettable role as Sarah a rather sweet but boring physician. Her metamorphosis in an identical looking Regan MacNeil form the original 1973 Exorcist however pumps some much needed thrills into what's otherwise lackluster horror. One of the most memorable performances comes from Alan Ford (Brick Top Polford form Snatch) who plays a perpetually drunk archeologist with a putrid skin ailment. Ford's rendition of Jeffries is so alarmingly disgusting that it makes Lucifer look like a sweetie pie.
The best thing about Exorcist: The Beginning is its deceptively promising opening set in Africa in the mid 400s. It's an eerie scene bound to make audiences' hair stand on end as a lone bedraggled priest slogs through a dry and dusty plain littered with millions of corpses nailed to upside-down crosses. But in its post-World War II setting the film suffers a setback both in storytelling and visuals. The film was originally directed by Paul Schrader who replaced helmer John Frankenheimer who died before filming began. But producers reportedly thought Schrader's version wasn't frightening enough and handed the reins over to Renny Harlin (Driven) in hopes he would turn out a more spine-chilling rendition. But sadly there is no chilling of the spine to be experienced here. Harlin uses horror film clichés to spook the audience like the faithful light-going-out-in-dark-settings scenario that the film feels more like an episode of Scare Tactics. Harlin's special effects are laugh-out-loud funny too including his inane man-eating CGI hyenas with beaming blue eyes. The beasts move about the screen as if they have no weight or substance to them. What makes those cartoony hyenas even sillier though is the fact that their presence is not needed (they're hardly scary) or even explained which pretty much sums up the film's biggest problem: The spotty story leaves too many questions unanswered. The script credited to Caleb Carr and William Wisher and later revised by Alexi Hawley is so vague it's irritating.

Top Story: CBS Says They Didn't Pay Jackson for Interview
Both CBS and Michael Jackson have denied reports that the network paid the pop singer for his exclusive interview on 60 Minutes. According to Reuters, a New York Times report on Wednesday, based on an anonymous source described as a disgruntled former business associate of Jackson's, said that the network landed the Ed Bradley interview by agreeing to pay $1 million extra to license their previously shelved music special celebrating Jackson's career, which airs Jan. 2. CBS and two of Jackson's closest representatives, however, told Reuters the terms of Jackson's entertainment special and his 60 Minutes interview were negotiated separately. "This was not a package deal," CBS spokesman Chris Ender told Reuters. "These were two parallel projects. They were being developed and worked on independently." Enders did admit, however, that the two projects became "linked" in the aftermath of the allegations against Jackson "when we told Mr. Jackson's representatives that we couldn't broadcast the entertainment special if he wasn't addressing the situation on a CBS News program." Jackson's defense lawyer, Mark Geragos, conceded the prospect of reviving Jackson's music special likely weighed in his decision to go on 60 Minutes, Reuters reports. "I think that's a fair statement," he said when asked if Jackson did the interview to get the special back on CBS.
Rush Guitarist Arrested New Year's Eve
Alex Zivojinovich, the lead guitarist for the rock band Rush and better known by his stage name Alex Lifeson, was arrested Wednesday night for drunken and violent behavior after attacking sheriff's deputies at the Naples, Fla., Ritz-Carlton hotel, AP reports. Deputies said they used a stun gun on Zivojinovich, 50, who faces six charges that include aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence, and disorderly intoxication after a scuffle broke out when Zivojinovich's son Justin refused to leave the stage. Justin, 33, and his wife Michelle Zivojinovich, 30, were also arrested.
Imbruglia Gets Hitched
Actress-turned-pop singer Natalie Imbruglia, 28, and Daniel Johns, 24, frontman of the Australian band Silverchair, exchanged vows Wednesday in a private ceremony at an exclusive resort on Australia's northeastern coast, The Associated Press reports. It's the first marriage for both.
Screenwriter Dunne Dies
Author-screenwriter John Gregory Dunne, best known for his screen collaborations with wife Joan Didion, including The Panic in Needle Park and the 1976 remake A Star is Born, died Tuesday in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack, Reuters reports. He was 71.
French Author Says Disney Copied Nemo
Franck Le Calvez, a French children's book author, claims Finding Nemo closely resembles his book Pierrot the Clown Fish, in which his hero, a wide-eyed, orange-striped fish, gets separated from his family, AP reports. In February, a court will hear his case against Disney and Pixar Animation, the French newspaper Le Monde reports. The case is for breach of copyright and trademark, and Le Calvez also wants Nemo merchandise taken off the shelves of French shops.
Norway's Idol Wins World Title
Norway's Pop Idol Kurt Nilsen picked up the World Idol title Thursday, beating 10 other Idol competitors from across the globe including American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, AP reports. Nilson, a 25-year-old plumber, won the Norwegian version of Pop Idol in May. His single, "She's So High," went straight to No. 1 in the Norwegian singles chart and is the country's biggest-selling single to date.
Irwin Introduces Baby to First Croc Feeding
Animal Planet's wacky Crocodile Hunter host and animal activist Steve Irwin took his infant son to his first crocodile feeding Friday, AP reports, offering a chicken to the snapping croc while holding the baby, Bob, in his other hand. "He's one month old, so it's about time Bob got out there and did his first croc demo," the Australian celebrity told the crowd at the Australian Zoo. Irwin's wife Terri, who gave birth to her second child Dec. 1, also attended the show, billed as the baby's "croc feeding debut."
Willie Nelson To Debut Antiwar Ballad
Country singer Willie Nelson plans to debut his new song, the antiwar ballad "What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth," at a fund-raising concert Saturday for Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich in Austin, Texas. "Now, I haven't played it for Toby (Keith) yet," a laughing Nelson told the Austin American-Statesman on Tuesday. Although the two are close friends, the sentiments of Nelson's song are the polar opposite of Keith's angry-American anthem "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," with its call to arms. "Toby wrote that song in reaction to 9/11, which was a totally different thing than watching U.S. soldiers die in Iraq," Nelson said. "Toby's said he's not a Republican or a Democrat; he's a Christian. So we're coming from the same place."
Role Call: Mostow Counts Seconds; Woody Allen Robs Pierre
Terminator 3 director Jonathan Mostow has signed to write and direct a remake of John Frankenheimer's film Seconds for Paramount Pictures. According to Variety, the original 1966 film starred John Randolph as an older man who gets a new lease on life with a new face and identity. Even though he's reconstituted in the handsome visage of Rock Hudson, the change brings its own problems. No one has been cast at yet. Seconds becomes the second film by the late Frankenheimer that is being remade by Paramount…Jonathan Demme will direct Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep and Liev Schreiber in The Manchurian Candidate…Director W

Top Story: Britney Spears Performs Surprise Las Vegas Show
Britney Spears was back in the spotlight this weekend after giving a surprise performance Sunday morning at the Palms hotel-casino in Las Vegas--and the pop princess gave the 1,800 patrons at the Rain nightclub something to drool over. Rain co-owner Scott DeGraff told MTV News the DJ stopped the music at about 1 a.m. as a group of five or six dancers took the stage, shielding Spears, who then broke out from behind them to a roaring crowd. During her 30-minute performance, Spears and her dancers pretended to make out with one another on a giant daybed lounger and ended with one of the dancers ripping Spears' top off, exposing her red bra. The singer belted out some tunes from her still-untitled upcoming album, including "Me Against the Music" and "Breathe on Me." Spears' new album was originally slated for release November 25 but a statement on her official Web site says that the record's release had been postponed.
Johnny Cash Mourned at Private Service
Music legend Johnny Cash was remembered at a private 2 1/2-hour service Monday at First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tenn., the same church where services for Cash's wife, June Carter Cash, were held after her death in May. Cash, 71, died Friday of respiratory failure caused by complications from diabetes. According to The Associated Press, more than 1,000 mourners attended the funeral and listened to tributes from Rosanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson, preacher Franklin Graham, former Vice President Al Gore and other family members and friends. Also paying their respects were Vince Gill, Hank Williams, Jr., Dwight Yoakam, the Oak Ridge Boys and actress Jane Seymour. A public memorial is still being planned.
Schwarzenegger Tries To Woo Women Voters
Arnold Schwarzenegger wife Maria Shriver appeared on Monday's season premiere of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Schwarzenegger and Winfrey discussed old magazine articles that have resurfaced in which he describes a party-hardy lifestyle. The Republican said the comments reflected a 1970s strategy to pump up interest in the sport of bodybuilding. "We really were out there doing crazy things. We were trying to get the attention," Schwarzenegger said. "At that time I didn't think I was going to run for governor." According to the AP, polls show the Republican is struggling to win over women, the show's primary audience.
Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards Expecting
Actors Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards, who were married in June 2002, are expecting their first child early next spring, a publicist told the AP Monday. Sheen, who appears in the new CBS series Two and a Half Men, also has an 18-year-old daughter, Cassandra, from his first marriage. Richards, 32, and Sheen, 38, first worked together on 1993's Loaded Weapon 1 and met again while shooting the independent film Good Advice in 2000. They began dating after she guest-starred on Sheen's former sitcom, Spin City. The couple is also co-starring in Scary Movie 3, which opens Oct. 24.
Man Tries To Derail Blaine's London Stunt
A 40-year-old man was arrested Tuesday for causing criminal damage in attempting to derail magician David Blaine's planned 44-day fast in a glass box suspended from a crane in London, Reuters reports. Police said the man climbed nearby scaffolding and spent half an hour trying to sabotage Blaine's bid by attempting to cut through water pipes and power cables attached to the box. Since Blaine began his isolation challenge 10 days ago, he has been pelted with eggs, had golfballs driven at him, been teased by topless women and has endured late-night revelers waving the scent of fish 'n' chips at him.
NBC Preps Van Helsing Drama
In an unprecedented move, Universal has pacted with NBC for a drama series based on the studio's summer 2004 tentpole, the monster actioner Van Helsing, Variety reports. The film is set in the late 19th century and finds Bram Stoker's fabled monster hunter Van Helsing summoned to a distant Eastern European land to vanquish evil in the form of Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolf Man. The pact is unusual because the pilot commitment precedes the release of the film by eight months.
Role Call: More Trouble for Exorcist Prequel, G.I. Joe Gets Movie Deal
There is no end in sight for the problems that have plagued the production of Exorcist: The Beginning. According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Paul Schrader is no longer working on the project, which completed principal photography in February and is scheduled for release early next year. Schrader took over the project when the late director John Frankenheimer became ill, but he and producers James G. Robinson and Guy McElwaine have since run into creative differences in post-production. No replacement director has been named ... Go Joe! Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has been recruited by Hasbro to make a movie deal for G.I. Joe. Di Bonaventura, who is expected to pitch a live-action film based on the greatest American hero, was drafted by the toymaker because of his experience as a Warner Bros. executive in managing such franchises as The Matrix, Harry Potter, Scooby-Doo and the Batman films.

Top Story
Whitney Houston's father John Houston died of cardiac arrest early Sunday morning in New York after struggling many years with diabetes and heart disease. He was 82. He and his famous daughter were recently embroiled in a lawsuit in which the elder Houston's theatrical management company claimed the pop diva owed the company $100 million for helping her through financial difficulties and securing a record contract. In December, he publicly urged his daughter from his hospital bed to "pay the money you owe me." The dispute did not keep Whitney away, however, as Reuters reports the singer flew to New York Sunday from Miami, where she was doing a shoot for a magazine cover, to be with her family.
Celebs
Ben Affleck will not be marrying his fiancee Jennifer Lopez on Valentine's Day after all. Reuters reports the actor quelled the rumor by telling Vanity Fair in an interview published Monday that he and Lopez "don't have time!" and added they are shooting for the nuptials to take place sometime next summer.
Jude Law doesn't like rumors either. According to People.com, Law, who is married to actress Sadie Frost, insisted to Australia's Syndey Morning Herald that the rumor he and Nicole Kidman had an affair on the set of their movie Cold Mountain is categorically untrue and "to suggest otherwise is malicious, hurtful and libelous." It was reported by a few tabloids that Frost, who recently had to be treated for postnatal depression after giving birth to the couple's son, may have been also upset about the alleged affair. Law added, "I have been on to my lawyers and will follow all legal action necessary to ensure that these kind of vicious lies are put to a stop."
Pop star Michael Jackson, who allowed a British interviewer access to his personal life over an eight month period for a special television documentary, reveals, among other things, that he picked a surrogate mother to give birth to his third child, Prince Michael II. Jackson also told ITV1 reporter Martin Bashir having children sleep in his bed is perfectly innocent and admitted he had plastic surgery on his nose--twice. Riiight. The 90-minute TV-special aired on British television Monday and will air on ABC's 20/20 Thursday.
Meryl Streep doesn't buy into all the Oscar hullabaloo. The Oscar-winning actress told London's Daily Telegraph, "I find it alarming that all the campaigning for Oscars is getting like a political campaign. It really is distasteful.....It won't be long before they start paying for television commercials for best picture, best actor and all those things." The 53-year-old actress has been nominated 12 times, winning twice, and shares the nom record with Katharine Hepburn. Heavily touted this year for her performances in The Hours and Adaptation, Streep will most likely break that record when the Academy announces the nominations next week.
Movies
Russell Crowe is set to reunite with his A Beautiful Mind director Ron Howard for the boxing drama Cinderella Man. Variety reports the film focuses on Depression-era fighter and folk hero Jim Braddock, who defeated heavyweight champ Max Baer in a 15-round slugfest in 1935.
Tube
The Directors Guild of America has announced their nominees for the best television movie direction for 2002, including nods for the late John Frankenheimer for HBO's Path to War, Julie Dash for CBS' The Rosa Parks Story and Mick Jackson for HBO's Live From Baghdad.
NBC's new drama Kingpin has drawn criticism from the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Associated Press reports, for its depiction of Hispanics as "drug dealers, murderers and unpatriotic American citizens," the group said in a statement. They added the show "opens the door to more negative feelings towards Latinos in our community."

Top Story
Josh Randall, who plays Dr. Mike Burton on the NBC TV series Ed, was arrested Wednesday night for allegedly smoking crack cocaine in a Brooklyn park, The Associated Press reports. According to police, Randall was smoking crack with a homeless man in a park near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Police say they also recovered a small quantity of crack at the scene. The 30-year-old actor has been charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and could face up to seven years in prison if convicted. But his lawyer, Ken Glassman, said the allegations are a misunderstanding and are unsubstantiated. In a statement released Thursday Glassman said Randall asked a homeless man for directions to the bus, and the homeless man asked him for money. "Josh, who is not a New Yorker, was taking a walk in Brooklyn and got lost," he said. "Josh gave him $20--at which point he was arrested. Josh has committed no crime."
Celebs
A spokesperson for the Osbourne family told USA Today that matriarch Sharon is in "very good spirits" following her first session of chemotherapy. The treatment is the first step of a three-month course in her battle with colon cancer, which will be shown on the second series of MTV's hit reality show The Osbournes.
Movies
New Zealander Andrew Adamson, who co-directed DreamWorks' animated feature Shrek with Vicky Jenson, has signed on to shoot the live-action feature adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. According to Variety, writer Ann Peacock will adapt the C.S. Lewis novel for Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz' Walden Media, which hopes to have the film in theaters by mid-2004. No distributor is attached yet.
Emmy-nominated actress Jennifer Aniston (Friends) will team up with funnyman Jim Carrey for Universal Pictures' spiritual comedy Bruce Almighty. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Morgan Freeman is in final negotiations to star. Directed by Tom Shadyac, the project is expected to begin production Tuesday in Los Angeles.
Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry has signed on to star in Nappily Ever After, a film about a black woman's journey to self-discovery--including the decision to stop processing her hair and cut it short, according to The Hollywood Reporter. But the project just got an added boost: Scribe Tina Chism (Drumline) has signed on to do the screenplay based on Trisha Thomas' novel by the same name.
Director Paul Schrader (The Comfort of Strangers) is in negotiations to helm the untitled prequel to The Exorcist, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Schrader is taking over the reigns from the late John Frankenheimer, who died one month after voluntarily stepping down from the project. The film, which stars Gabriel Mann, Liam Neeson and Australian actor Billy Crawford, is expected to begin shooting in the United Kingdom and Spain in November.
Tube
The fifth upcoming season of the hit NBC comedy Will &amp; Grace is heating up to be a good one. According to The Hollywood Reporter, crooner Harry Connick Jr. will be joining the cast as a new love interest for Grace, while Jack gets hired as a personal assistant to Kevin Bacon, who will be playing himself. The new season of Will &amp; Grace debuts Sept. 26.
Music
Rapper P. Diddy and Shakira have joined the lineup of performers for MTV's 2002 Video Music Awards, which will take place Aug. 29 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. Previously announced performers include Pink, Eminem and Bruce Springsteen. Britney Spears, Nelly, B2K, Bow Wow and Elton John will help hand out the awards, MTV.com reports.

Top Story
The 59th Venice Film Festival will kick off its venue with the long-awaited Frida, a biopic about the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, starring Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas. Other films in competition include Steven Soderbergh's newest, Full Frontal, and Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition, starring Tom Hanks, as well as Between Strangers, the directorial debut of Edoardo Ponti, the 29-year-old son of Sophia Loren, who also stars in the film. Those celebrities scheduled to attend include Hayek, Loren, Hanks and Julianne Moore with her film The Hours. The festival runs Aug. 29 to Sept 8.
Celebs
Not to be outdone by another pop diva, Celine Dion is jumping on the fragrance-line bandwagon. (J.Lo, watch out.) Dion will be creating a perfume with Coty Inc., which also produces Jovan and Stetson fragrances, and the scent should be in stores in early 2003. Jennifer Lopez's fragrance, Glow, is ready to hit the market soon.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell may have to wait until October before learning if she has beaten an appeal by the British tabloid Daily Mirror, which was ordered in March to pay her damages of $5,493 for breach of confidence and invasion of privacy. Why the wait? The Court of Appeal in London is going on a summer break and won't be back until October. Campbell's lawsuit stems from the newspaper reporting that she was attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' 25th annual Kennedy Center Honors will go to an eclectic group that includes Elizabeth Taylor, James Earl Jones, Chita Rivera and musicians Paul McCartney and James Levine. The honorees will be received at the White House Dec. 8 before attending the Honors Gala event at the Kennedy Center. CBS will air the two-hour special later in December.
Movies
Director Jon Amiel (Entrapment) is in negotiations to remake the 1966 thriller Seconds, which was directed by the late John Frankenheimer and starred the late Rock Hudson. Variety reports the film centers on a man who trades his life for a new identity and gets more than he bargained for. Sounds thoroughly Twilight Zone-ish.
HBO will be releasing its first feature film in October with Real Women Have Curves, the winner of this year's audience award at the Sundance Film Festival. Based on Josefina Lopez's autobiographical play, the film takes a look at a first-generation Mexican-American woman who lives in East Los Angeles and tries to balance her ambitions and her cultural heritage.
Tube News
NBC is bringing back the old in a brand-new way. The Rerun Show, which airs this Thursday at 9:30 p.m., has an ensemble cast re-enacting storylines from such sitcoms as Diff'rent Strokes, The Partridge Family, One Day at a Time and Bewitched. The episodes run shortened, yet word-for-word, as the actors impersonate the original sitcom stars--and the absurdity of it all isn't lost. Executive Producer David Salzman told The Associated Press, "If you can do it with Shakespeare, why can't we have fun with these shows?" Why, indeed.

TV directing debut, "The Plot Against King Solomon" episode of the CBS series "You Are There"

Directed campaign commercials for Robert F Kennedy during presidential primary season

Seized upon the Goodyear Blimp as an instrument of unpredictable menace in action disaster pic "Black Sunday"; feature acting debut as TV Controller

Directed the short "Ambush", one of five featurette advertisments for BMW shown over the Internet at bmwfilms.com

Seventh and last film with Lewis, the highly esteemed "The Iceman Cometh"; also Fredric March's last film

Replaced Charles Crichton as director of "The Birdman of Alcatraz", starring Lancaster

After directing additional episodes of "You Are There" and "Danger", moved to CBS' California studios to direct for "Climax!" and "Playhouse 90"

Produced and directed the HBO biopic "The Burning Season", starring Raul Julia; received second Emmy

Picked up third Emmy Award for the acclaimed TNT miniseries "Andersonville", set in the notorious Civil War prison camp; also served as an executive producer

Replaced Arthur Penn as director of "The Train", starring Lancaster and Paul Scofield

Began career turnaround with "Against the Wall" (HBO); produced by Axelrod's son Jonathan; received first of four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Directing for a Miniseries or Special

Helmed an as yet untitled prequel to "The Exorcist" (lensed 2002), focusing on Father Merrin's missionary work in Africa

Reteamed with Mifune for "The Challenge", martial arts movie co-scripted by John Sayles; Steven Seagal worked as a stunt coordinator

Short film about a California cattle farm brought him first assignment from the private sector, writing and producing a local TV show, "The Harry Howard Ranch Roundup"; served unofficially as director for drunken title holder

Feature directorial debut, "The Young Stranger"; had also filmed live TV version ("Deal a Blow") for "Climax!"; preferred that version because he had worked with familiar TV crew

Served in US Air Force; eventually joined its newly formed film squadron

Helmed "The Comedian" for "Playhouse 90", considered by some the finest live drama from TV's "Golden Age" because of its depiction of the fledgling medium itself; written by Rod Serling and starring Mickey Rooney

Received fourth Emmy for helming the TNT biographical miniseries "George Wallace"; also produced

Directed and co-produced (with screenwriter George Axelrod) "The Manchurian Candidtae"; second film with Lansbury

First feature in five years, "The Island of Dr. Moreau"; took over production from fired South African director Richard Stanley, salvaged the film and made it releasable

Reteamed with Trumbo on "The Horsemen", adapted from the Joesph Kessel novel

Summary

Having emerged from the era of 1950s live television, director John Frankenheimer quickly became a Hollywood wunderkind after directing several highly-regarded films before suffering a series of setbacks that nearly crippled his career, only to have one of the truly great comebacks of American cinema. Frankenheimer began his career directing some 150-odd live television dramas in the 1950s and early 1960s, contributing memorable installments to anthology series like "Playhouse 90" (CBS, 1956-1960). Though he made his feature debut in 1957 with "The Young Stranger," he began his feature career proper with "The Young Savages" (1961), which began a successful five-picture collaboration with actor Burt Lancaster. The pair reunited for one of Frankenheimer's most well-received films, "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962), though the best for the director was yet to come. With "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962), Frankenheimer directed a chilling thriller that not only held up over the ensuing decades, but entered the pantheon of true Hollywood classics. Frankenheimer followed with "Seven Days in May" (1964), a frighteningly realistic White House coup-de-tat that reportedly received behind the scene support from President John F. Kennedy. Following lesser known films like "The Train" (1965) and "Grand Prix" (1966), as well as the tragic assassination of close friend Robert F. Kennedy, Frankenheimer entered a dark period marred by depression, alcoholism and an inability to direct a hit film. Though he saw some success with "The French Connection II" (1975) and "Black Sunday" (1977), Frankenheimer floundered throughout the 1970s and 1980s, before rejuvenating his career on the small screen in the 1990s, winning four Emmy Awards in five years for directing "Against the Wall" (HBO, 1994), "The Burning Season" (HBO 1994), "Andersonville" (TNT, 1996) and "George Wallace" (TNT, 1997). The newfound success allowed him to make a triumphant return to features with "Ronin" (1998), an old school Cold War spy thriller that gave Frankenheimer one last success on the big screen and cemented his reputation as the undisputed master of the political thriller.<p>Born on Feb. 19, 1930 in Malba, NY, Frankenheimer was raised by his father, Walter, a stock broker of German-Jewish origins, and his Irish-Catholic mother, Helen. Though he was introverted and socially awkward as a youth - his father sent him to a psychological institute to be tested when he was 17 - Frankenheimer was an excellent student, performing well at LaSalle Military Academy, where he was captain of the tennis team. He next attended Williams College in Massachusetts, where he earned a bachelor's in literature. During his last two years at Williams, he discovered acting and spent his summer vacations performing summer stock at the Highland Playhouse in Falmouth, MA. Following his graduation in 1951, Frankenheimer joined the Air Force and served in its newly formed film squadron, where he directed service films during the Korean War. Having found his life's ambition, Frankenheimer left his Air Force film unit and talked his way into an assistant director's job at CBS, where he spent the next several years establishing himself as one of the most brilliant talents to emerge from television's vaunted Golden Age.<p>Frankenheimer helmed more than 150 live dramas between 1954 and 1960, with such prestigious contributions as "The Last Tycoon," starring Jack Palance; "For Whom the Bell Tolls," with Jason Robards, Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach; the original "Days of Wine and Roses," starring Cliff Robertson and Piper Laurie; "The Turn of the Screw," with Ingrid Bergman; and "The Browning Version," which featured Sir John Gielgud's first television appearance. He soon made a seamless transition to feature films with "The Young Stranger" (1957), a sensitive father-son drama about a movie executive (James Daly) who struggles in a strained relationship with his out-of-control son (James MacArthur), which was an expanded version of a one-hour TV drama he had directed called "Deal a Blow" (1955). Frankenheimer returned to television, directing several memorable episodes of the anthology series "Playhouse 90" (CBS, 1956-1960), including "The Comedian" (1957) with Mickey Rooney and written by Rod Serling. By the turn of the next decade, Frankenheimer returned to feature directing with "The Young Savages" (1961), an urban drama centered on an assistant district attorney (Burt Lancaster), who investigates the stabbing death of a young Puerto Rican boy by three juvenile delinquents. The film marked Frankenheimer's permanent move into features while inaugurating a collaboration with Lancaster that spanned five films.<p>Frankenheimer and Lancaster next joined forces on "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962), a triumphant redemption drama about Robert Stroud (Lancaster), a real-life prisoner serving a life sentence who began helping injured sparrows in the yard and later became a noted ornithologist, making several contributions to avian pathology while authoring two books. Though portrayed as mild-mannered by Lancaster, the real Stroud was widely considered to be a foul-tempered and aggressive person who was serving time for killing a prison guard after having already been convicted of manslaughter. Despite some outrage over Stroud's characterization, the movie earned four Academy Award nominations, including one for Lancaster's performance. Frankenheimer followed with what became his seminal film, "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962), a stark and tense political thriller about a U.S. Army hero (Laurence Harvey) returned from the Korean War who has been secretly brainwashed by the Communists to assassinate a presidential nominee. But when his old army buddy (Frank Sinatra) starts to think something is wrong, the plot begins to unravel, leading to the revelation that his right-wing and rather incestuous mother (Angele Lansbury) was a key player in the assassination attempt. Both chilling and brilliant, the Cold War thriller earned Lansbury an Academy Award nomination while giving Frankenheimer a place in cinema history for directing a true Hollywood classic.<p>Having earned himself considerable clout, Frankenheimer followed with another taut Cold War thriller, "Seven Days in May" (1964), which starred Burt Lancaster as an army general whose plot to overthrow an unpopular president (Frederic March) is discovered by a Pentagon colonel (Kirk Douglas). With a script penned by Rod Serling and an ominous score composed by Jerry Goldsmith, "Seven Days in May" presented a chilling situation that even President John F. Kennedy - who reportedly personally urged Frankenheimer to make the film - thought was a potential reality. No sooner had he completed the film when Lancaster called him to Paris to replace Arthur Penn as director of "The Train" (1965), a near-flawlessly executed adventure story about a Nazi train smuggling works of art from Paris to Berlin during the French liberation. His first taste of failure came with "Seconds" (1966), which starred Rock Hudson as a frustrated middle-aged businessman who manages to transform his identity with the help of science, only to find himself trapped in a life he realizes he never wanted. Because of the difficulty of its premise, the film initially flopped at the box office, though it later grew into something of a cult favorite over the years.<p>Now in demand as an action director, Frankenheimer went on to helm "Grand Prix" (1966), which combined the director's love of auto racing with his love of film. Though thin on plot, the movie was full of high-octane action in its depiction of a cross-continent road race and featured an international cast headed by James Garner, Yves Montand and Toshiro Mifune. "Grand Prix" was also Frankenheimer's first film in color and earned a considerable sum at the box office, fixing a reputation damaged by his previous film. But things began to unravel for Frankenheimer in June 1968 when his close relationship with Robert F. Kennedy ended in tragedy. At the time, he was serving as Kennedy's media advisor, as well as opening up his Malibu home to the popular senator. In a last minute change of plans, Frankenheimer drove Kennedy to the Ambassador Hotel in downtown L.A., where the presidential hopeful was gunned down by Sirhan Sirhan. The tragic event plunged Frankenheimer into a deep depression which was exacerbated by an already growing problem with alcohol. Practically overnight, the seeds to the wunderkind's destruction were sown.<p>Frankenheimer and his third wife moved to Europe, where he continued making films like "The Fixer" (1968), "The Gypsy Moths" (1969) and "The Horsemen 1971), though none reached the quality of his previous work. He went on to direct a version of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" (1973), one of Frankenheimer's personal favorites which few saw despite good reviews. He showed signs of box-office life with the sequel "French Connection II" (1975), which told the continuing story of Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman), who leaves Manhattan for Marseilles hot on the trail of heroin kingpin Frog One (Fernando Rey). A mere shadow of the Oscar-winning 1971 original, the sequel proved successful enough for Frankenheimer to win his next job. His career rejuvenation continued with the commercial success of "Black Sunday" (1977), an action thriller about a deranged pilot (Bruce Dern) determined to detonate the Super Bowl with a bomb-laden blimp. Smart and terrifyingly realistic, "Black Sunday" was one of his last major hits; what followed was almost two decades of mediocrity that seemed unlikely to have come from the man who had directed "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Seven Days in May."<p>While quality scripts failed to come his way, Frankenheimer slipped into obscurity while also suffering from a debilitating addiction to alcohol that nearly caused cirrhosis of the liver. While he managed to quit alcohol in the early 1980s, the director was unable to pull himself out his career doldrums, helming such fare as the horror schlock-fest "Prophesy" (1979), the cheap martial arts actioner, "The Challenge" (1982), and the admirable, but ultimately failed political thriller ""The Holcroft Covenant" (1985). Frankenheimer directed another film he was proud of with an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's "52 Pick-Up" (1986), but the blackmail crime thriller starring Roy Scheider and Kelly Preston failed to generate much business at the box office. Turning back to television, Frankenheimer adopted the pseudonym Alan Smithee to divorce himself from the action-adventure yarn, "Riviera" (ABC, 1987). He ran into problems on the action thriller, "Dead Bang" (1989), thanks to that film's star, Don Johnson, personifying the temperamental star cliché. Amidst numerous critical reviews rebuking Frankenheimer's decision to make such a trivial film, "Dead Bang" flopped at the box office, making any sort of feature film comeback nearly impossible. Though he found a renewed interest following a 1988 re-release of "The Manchurian Candidate," Frankenheimer struggled to regain his footing in the feature world.<p>Following the familiar Cold War-themed spy thriller "The Fourth Wall" (1989) and the rather forgettable "Year of the Gun" (1991), Frankenheimer went back to television in an effort to rekindle some of the magic of his early career. After directing an episode of "Tales from the Crypt" (HBO, 1992), he helmed the made-for-cable movie "Against the Wall" (HBO, 1994), which told the story about the 1971 Attica Prison uprisings from a hostage's point of view. The small screen movie finally provided Frankenheimer with the best material he had seen in decades. Although he had received five Emmy nominations for his directing live television early in his career, "Against the Wall" earned him his first statue for Outstanding Directing. With renewed career vigor, Frankenheimer found new life on the small screen, directing "The Burning Season" (HBO 1994), a biopic about South American activist Chico Mendes (Raul Julia), which earned him a second straight Emmy Award for directing. He found himself in the winner's circle at the Emmys again for "Andersonville" (TNT, 1996), a two-part miniseries about the notorious Civil War prison camp. Going for the cycle, Frankenheimer won his fourth directing Emmy in five years with "George Wallace" (1997), a reflective and not-unflattering look at the famed Alabama governor and staunch segregationist (Gary Sinese) whose bid for the presidency abruptly ended when permanently disabled by an assassin's bullet.<p>Because of his resurgence on television, Frankenheimer was given opportunity to redeem himself on the big screen. He once again came to the rescue and replaced an original director, this time Richard Stanley, on "The Island of Dr. Moreau" (1996), sorting out the chaos and enabling its release, while dealing with two of Hollywood's most difficult actors, Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando. Despite the critical and financial drubbing that movie received, Frankenheimer largely escaped criticism. He next directed "Ronin" (1998), a triumphant return to the big screen that ultimately proved to be his last truly great film. A sly spy thriller set in a post-Cold War world written by David Mamet, "Ronin" followed a band of international operatives (including Robert De Niro, Jean Reno and Stellan Skarsgard) in a nonstop pursuit of an oddly-shaped aluminum suitcase, the contents of which remain unknown. Uncluttered by boring details, the film, showed off its extreme stylishness, including several high-action car chases and shootouts, which allowed Frankenheimer to put his bold visual style on display full-tilt. The man who had redefined the suspense film with "The Manchurian Candidate" and who had refused to give up his quest for the elusive big-budget picture, had finally weighed in with a movie that displayed his mastery of the medium.<p>Though he had found his form with "Ronin," Frankenheimer took a step back with his next feature, "Reindeer Games" (2000). Starring Ben Affleck as a recently released burglar who aims to spend his freedom with the woman of his dreams (Charlize Theron), the crime thriller - which featured that old cliché of one last heist - boasted some well-choreographed action sequences, but ultimately suffered from poor critical reviews and a lack of audience interest. But "Reindeer Games" proved to be a temporary misstep, as Frankenheimer returned to the small screen for "Path to War" (HBO, 2002), an intriguing look into the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson (Michael Gambon), whose heralded domestic agenda suffers under the weight of the Vietnam War. Also starring Alec Baldwin as Robert McNamara, Tom Skerritt as General Westmoreland and Felicity Huffman as Lady Bird Johnson, "Path to War" earned vast critical praise and several award nominations, including one for another Emmy. But "Path to War" ultimately proved to be Frankenheimer's swan song. Just two months after the movie aired on HBO, the director suffered a sudden and debilitating stroke following spinal surgery that ended his life. At the time, Frankenheimer was scheduled to direct the prequel to "The Exorcist" (1973). He was 72.

Name

Role

Comments

Evans Evans

Wife

married c. 1961; has appeared in several of Frankenheimer's films

Joanne Evans

Wife

divorced; married her to accompany him (at the government's expense) when he entered the Air Force with understanding they would divorce when discharged

Frankenheimer used the pseudonymous Alan Smithee credit on the 1987 TV-movie "Riviera"

"It was very exciting. If they had live television right now, I'd still be doing it. You had total control as a director. It was live, so we had final cut. And you had no such thing as a difficult actor." --John Frankenheimer in Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1989.

On the death of his friend Robert Kennedy: "He wanted me up there on the podium with him, but I said I didn't think this was the kind of image he wanted--a movie director beside him on the night of the primary."

"It was a tremendous sense of loss. I had spent my life dealing with make-believe. And here was somebody trying to make a huge difference in people's lives. I was really left very disillusioned, and went through a period of deep depression." --From The New York Times, March 24, 1994.

About signing on to direct Marlon Brando in "The Island of Dr Moreau": "We missed each other during our careers. I've worked with a lot of people and I always thought I really wanted to work with Brando before we both hang it up. I said that during an interview with Australian TV. Lo and behold, two weeks later the phone call came asking, 'Would you like to take over this movie?'" --John Frankenheimer quoted in Entertainment Today, August 23-29, 1996.

On what TV offers that film doesn't: "First it offers me more time to tell a story. Long form is fabulous for me. Secondly, the material that I've been lucky enough to do on these four cable movies has been controversial, cutting-edge material that I don't think would have been made into a feature film today. Certainly not a mainstream feature film, because mainstream studios aren't making that kind of material." --Frankenheimer to Buzz, August 22-28, 1997.

About the alcoholism that threatened his life as well as his career: "I had a drinking problem. It took a toll on me. And the state of mind you're in when you have a problem like that, even when you're not drunk, is the most dangerous time. Because you make decisions that are not totally in your best interest--about your life, about your career choices and everything."

He stopped drinking c. 1981. "I said, 'I can't go on like this'--I figured I'd better do something about it because otherwise I was going to die." --From The New York Times, September 14, 1998.

In May 2001, Frankenheimer addressed rumors that he was actually the biological father of film director Michael Bay. Frankenheimer admitted to a brief relationship with Bay's birth mother who later contacted the director's representatives and claimed to be pregnant. Frankenheimer reportedly payed her a sum of money (about $7500) when he learned she was expecting. After the rumors surfaced that Bay's natural father was a filmmaker, there was much speculation and Frankenheimer's name often came up. In the May 2001 interviews, the director firmly stated that he was NOT the father of Michael Bay and that it had been verified by "tests".

Affiliations

Member, Board of Governors of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences